JOHN VARLEY

of the
"OLD SOCIETY"
by

ADRIAN BURY
Author of "Water Colour Painting of Today," "Oil Painting
of Today," "The Art of Reginald G. Eves, R.A.," "Thomas
Collier, R.I.," "Leaves of Syon," etc.

LEIGH-ON-SEA
F. LEWIS, PUBLISHERS, LIMITED
THE TITHE HOUSE
 JOHN VARLEY : THE ASTROLOGER
L artists must be seers of a kind. In looking into the mysteries
of form and colour, light and shade, studying the miracle of nature,
their minds are drawn toward things occult. The best of our
landscape painters, in the poetic sense of a Turner or a Constable, develop
and encourage a perception beyond average normal experience. Nor does
this experience necessarily depend on any religious belief. In some cases,
as with Blake and Linnell, a profoundly Christian attitude helps to stimulate
their faculties in a certain direction. Though Varley had those virtues that
make for Christian conduct, he was an agnostic. He had no beliefs, but
a great reverence in the presence of nature as a manifestation of some
inscrutable power. Varley, developing a taste for science and invention,
adopted the view that everything could be explained ultimately by energetic
and sincere enquiry. It will be recalled that a genius for science was
nounced in the Varley family. His father and uncle, Richard and Samuel
Varley, were scientifically minded. His brother Cornelius, was a
tinguished scientist, and this talent has persisted throughout later generations
of the Varleys.
John Varley believed that astrology was a vehicle of acquiring greater
knowledge, and he studied it with as much enthusiasm as he devoted to
painting. He was quite convinced about the influence of the
stars on human beings, and wherever he went, at whatever table he sat as
guest, it was not long before he began to talk about astrology. His pockets
were always crammed with old almanacs that he might work out a horoscope
for a friend or pupil, having ascertained the precise hour, date and place of
birth. by so fascinating a character must have been
sistible to the ladies, and though the statement by Gilchrist that Varley was
in the habit of taking fees as a professional soothsayer has been contradicted
by later authorities, we can well imagine that his passion for gazing into
the future was no disadvantage to him as a drawing master. The Messrs.
Redgrave state that uvarley was shrewd enough to see, and candid enough
to own that his astrology was one of the causes of his popularity." uLadies
came to him to take drawing lessons," he said, ttthat they might get their
nativities cast."
This interest in things occult as well as in art brought him an abiding
friendship with William Blake. It was about the year 1818 that John
Linnell introduced Varley to Blake, and this friendship lasted until Blake's
death in 1827.
Such a companionship should dispose once and for all of any
gestion that Varley was merely an opportunist in matters occult. In 1818
the was living in South Molton Street, not far from Varley, in
Great Titchfield Street. It was at the latter house in 1820 that Blake drew
the Visionary Heads of famous and infamous characters. Listening to
Blake's stories of apparitions, Varley urged him to make sketches
of them.

49
Gilchrist relates that
"Blake's visionary faculty was so much under control that, at the wish of a friend,
he could summon before his abstracted gaze any of the familiar forms and faces
he was asked for. This was during the favourable and befitting hours of the
night ; from nine to ten in the evening until one or two, or perhaps three or four
o'clock in the morning; Varley sitting by, sometimes slumbering, sometimes
waking. Varley would say, 'Draw me Moses,' or David ; or would ca11 for a
likeness of Julius Caesar, or Cassibellaunus or Edward the Third, or some other
great historical personage. Blake would answer, 'There he is!' and paper and
pencil being at hand, he would begin drawing with the utmost alacrity, as though
he had a real sitter before him."
John Linnell was also greatly interested in these strange affairs, and
could one have been present at those seances one would have been impressed
by three differently inspired personalities, united, however, in their love of
art, nature and truth, and earnestly trying to probe the mystery of life and
death. Blake with his massive forehead and brilliant eyes; Varley,
some in form, an excited and eloquent talker ; Linnell, very intelligent,
original and deferential, adding here and there a fine point to the discussion,
"forbearing to contradict Blake's stories of his visions, etc., but trying to
make reason out of
The Visions came at Blake's call. If the phantom disappeared before
the sketch was finished, Blake would say, "I can't go on-it is gone";
"I must wait till it returns," or "it has moved-the mouth is gone" ; or
"he frowns; he is displeased with my portrait of him."
When Linnell moved to Collins's Farm, Hampstead, the three artists
frequently met there, and a fourth was admitted to their friendship during
the last year of Blake's life. He was the young Samuel Palmer, and A. H.
Palmer, his son, has left this charming record of his father's visits with
Blake to Co1lins's Farm. Samuel Palmer was living in Broad Street,
Bloomsbury, at the time.
"Fortunately for my father," writes A. H. Palmer, "Broad Street lay in Blake's
way to Hampstead, and they often walked up to the village together. The aged
composer of the Somgs of Innocence was a great favourite with the children, who
revelled in those poems of the lovely spiritual things and beings that seemed to
him so real and so near. Therefore as the two friends reached the farm, a merry
troop turned out to meet them led by a little fair#haired girl of some six years
old. To this day she remembers cold winter nights when Blake was wrapped
up in an old shawl by Mrs. Linnell, and sent on his homeward way, with the
servant, lantern in hand, lighting him across the heath to the main road."*
What are we to make of those Visionary Heads? They certainly have
a sense of character, individually and collectively. Truly, as contemporary
critics said, they are typical of Blake's hand and mind as seen in his other
work. But to the sceptics Blake merely answered, "It must be right : I
saw it so." Suffice it to say that in Linnell and Varley, Blake had a sympa#
thetic and encouraging audience. Blake's explanation of his visionary powers
was that they were only a degree stronger than those possessed by all men.
He had exercised and retained his, whereas other men had lost theirs in a
*Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer, by A. H. Palmer (1892).
50
ulove of sordid pursuits, pride, vanity and the unrighteous Mammon."
Varley, ready to believe anything commonly thought to be impossible,
followed Blake's mood. He could not see the visions himself, but would
look wistfully into space, and make notes of persons delineated and the
times of their appearance as Blake dictated. For instance, W at Tyler by
Blake, from his spectre, as in the act of striking the tax gatherer, drawn
October 30, 1819, 1 h. a.m. On another drawing he inscribed, The Man
who Built the Pyramids, Oct. 18, 1819, fifteen degrees of 1. Cancer ascending.
There is a Visionary H ead of Richard Coeur de Lion, drawn from his spectre
-W. Blake fecit, Oct. 14, 1819, at a quarter past twelve, midnight. Some
of the portraits are straightforward presentations of the natural face, others
have a symbolical attribute. That of_Edward the Third shows the
arch's cranium swollen to immense proportions though the rest of the
features are naturalistic. This exaggeration was to suggest the tyrannical
attitude of the king. . Most curious of all the visions is the well,known
Ghost of a Flea, or personified flea. Blake's idea in regard to this fantastic
drawing is as follows :
"The spirit visited his (Blake's) imagination in such a figure as he never anti-
cipated in an insect. As I was anxious to make the most correct investigation in
my power, of the truth of these visions, on hearing of this spiritual apparition of
a flea, I asked him if he could draw for me the resemblance of what he saw: he
instantly said, 'I see him now before me.' I therefore gave him paper and a pencil,
with which he drew the portrait. I felt convinced, by his mode of proceeding,
that he had a real image before him ; for he left off, and began on another part
of the paper, to make a separate drawing of the mouth of the flea, which the spirit
having opened, he was prevented from proceeding with the first sketch till he had
closed it. During the time occupied in completing the drawing, the flea told him
that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men as were by nature blood-
thirsty to excess, and were therefore providentially confined to the size and form
of insects ; otherwise were he himself, for instance, the size of a horse, he would
depopulate a great portion of the country. He added that, if in attempting to
leap from one island to another, he should fall into the sea, he could swim, and
should not be lost. This spirit afterwards appeared to Blake, and afforded him
a view of his whole figure."*
These drawings deeply impressed Varley. The two men, though
ing vastly in their art, had much in common. But Varley could not convince
Blake about astrology. Nor did the poet,painter show any liking for it.
ttY our fortunate nativities," he would say, ttl count the worst. You reckon
to be born in August, and to have notice and patronage of kings, to be the
best of all ; whereas the lives of the apostles and martyrs, of whom it is
said the world was not worthy, would be counted by you as the worst,
and their nativities those of men to be hanged." Here science has obviously
come into conflict with religion. The Visionary Heads, however, must
have stimulated Varley's researches into the occult, and he proceeded to
write that strange book, A Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy, which was
published in 1828, and which contained, with certain physiognomical
ings by Linnell, Blake's sketch of the Ghost of a Flea. Varley also induced
*A Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy. By John Varley.
51
Linnell, a much better figure artist than he was, to make coloured copies
of it, and similar copies of the Wallace and Edward I.
Before considering Varley's Treatise, it is not without interest to recall
that the sciences of astrology and physiognomy are related. As everybody
knows, the custom of prophecy by the stars dates from remote antiquity.
Apart from the use of it for royal personages and great occasions in ancient
times, the story of the Star of Bethlehem is, of course, the most moving one
in Holy Writ. Varley believed emphatically that astrology could be used
as a key to the future, and that every individual's career and even his
ance could be accounted for in a combination of planets with the Signs of
the Zodiac at the time of the person's birth. Famous as a drawing master
he thus became equally famous for casting horoscopes. Since the celestial
bodies, in Varley's view, had such an influence on human action, it was
only logical to assume--;hat physical appearance was likewise affected by
stellar powers. These two departments of enquiry have indeed gone hand
in hand down the ages. Classical writers refer to the physiognomical
method of the divination of character. We find that Aristotle was the first
writer to publish a treatise in which several chapters are devoted to this
theory.
Such speculative ideas, in so far as they are used to gain money by
exploiting the incurable credulity of men and women, give rise to abuses,
and it is perhaps for this reason that physiognomy and astrology fell into
disrepute in the Middle Ages and later times. It was too frequently
employed as a means of and for creating political and
dynastic trouble, and laws were passed to punish the soothsayer, notably
the Act of Elizabeth c.4. which udeclared"
"all persons fayning to have knowledge of phisognomie or like Fantasticall
Y maginations" liable to "be stripped naked from the middle upwards and openly
whipped until his body be bloudye." This was modified by 13 Anne c. 26 (1713),
still further by 17 George II c. 5, which was re-enacted by the Vagrancy Act 1824.
This last Act only specifies palmistry.
Varley was not deterred by any possible legal intervention or the ridicule
of the unbeliever. He would argue, demonstrate, prove by nativities and
try to convince anybody and everybody who would listen to him. We
have it on the authority of Linnell that he was ua terrible assertor, bearing
down all before him by mere force of loquacity."
It was Varley's fixed habit every morning of his life, after rising from
his bed, to work out transits and positions for the day, known to astrological
experts as usecondary directions and transits." In this way he discovered
what was going to happen to him day by day.
The obvious question to ask is how far did Varley's prophecies come
true, and here we have to admit that the artist was not infrequently successful.
All the early authorities on Varley give examples of prophecies that
were verified by events, but the fullest account of the best stories was
published in the Occult Review, for under the title of Some Astrological

52
 -

Predictions of the late John Varley, by his grandson, John Varley, introduced
by A. P. Sinnett, we read that the narrator collected these stories from
his father, Albert Fleetwood Varley son of the original
John Varley.
As will be remembered from the biographical chapter, the Varleys and
Mulreadys were associated by the marriage of Elizabeth Varley with William
Mulready.
John Varley, Junior, writes :
"My father, Albert Varley, had been appointed executor to Paul Mulready, the
eldest son of William Mulready, R.A., and who died about the year 1864. He
was looking over papers and correspondence when he came upon the following
letter.-! happened to be present and it was handed me to read. It consisted of
only a few lines and was written taJ.:aul Mulready by his mother. I think these
were the exact words : 'My dear Paul, you are now sixty years old, remember
what your uncle John Varley said of this year: 'Do not box or play cricket, as
you may receive an injury to the knee, which would be fatal. Should you survive
this year you will probably live several years longer in comfortable circumstances.'
"Paul Mulready did not box or play cricket, but one afternoon he went with
a friend to Kennington Oval to watch some cricket practice. While conversing
with this friend, and at a moment when his attention was diverted from the play,
a ball, driven from a considerable distance, struck him on the knee. The injury
was, I believe, not very serious, but I heard it said that the medical treatment was
quite wrong. I remember him being wheeled about in a bathchair by his man-
servant, and paid several visits to him at his house in South Kensington. He was
cheerful and I think at that time did not suffer much pain. He was, however,
unable to walk or stand. Later on white swelling set in and an operation was
necessary-his leg was amputated by the well-known surgeon, Holmes Coote.
Two or three days later he died-1 believe from shock to the system ; but for
this accident it is very probable that he would have lived for many years, as he was
a man of great bodily strength and a wonderful constitution. His father, the
Royal Academician, had died some time previously, and had left him a considerable
sum of money, so that in this particular the prediction seemed likely of fulfilment.''
I have discovered the actual letter which is in possession of M rs. Guy
Wyndham, one of Mulready's descendants, and quote it here with the
owner's kind permission :
11 Fitzroy Street,
Fitzroy Square.
With my foot in the grave and my eye on a better world, I now address you
to remind you of what your uncle said concerning your future, in your sixtieth
year you would suffer from medical men and their ruffianly assistants. That I
think is past. You had a brain fever from intense heat and vexatious circumstances
and it was mistaken for insanity. At this period h e said you must beware of
r ascally lawyers who would fleece you and then turn round and declare you
insane and above all you must avoid playing at Cricket or Boxing as you were
likely to receive a Ball or a blow that might prove fatal and that from the hand
of a friend or one nearly allied to you. Now I entreat you to avoid Boxing even
in sport. If you get over the next six months you may have twenty happy years.
It would be a cruel thing after a life of trouble to die when a prospect of comfort
is before you.
God bless and prosper you, my dear boy.
April 19, 1864.

7 53
 Albert Varley always said that Paul Mulready was born in John Varley's
house, and that the horoscope was cast at the time of the child's birth.
Not the least remarkable fact about John Varley's strange life is that on
several occasions he was menaced by fire, and on three occasions he was
tossed by bulls.
He had purchased or taken a lease of an hotel, which he used partly as a
dwelling house for his large family, and partly as a studio and gallery for his pictures.
He was • • • in the habit of consulting his own horoscope each morning, and
bringing up directions, etc., to date. On one particular morning, my father related,
he was evidently ill at ease and disturbed in his mind, and though he had an
appointment he did not go out, and about eleven in the forenoon he gave his
watch to my father telling him to take it to a watchmaker in Regent Street and have
it set by Greenwich time. When he returned with the watch my grandfather was
still walking up and-.do.wn the studio, a proceeding that impressed my father as
most unusual, for my grandfather grudged actually every minute that he was away
from his easel. At last he remarked, "What is it to be?" and explained that there
were some evil aspects in his horoscope which would come into operation a few
minutes to twelve on that day. He was so certain as to the evil effects that he
would not go out, fearing some street accident. He said, "I might be run over,
or a slate might fall on my head" ; that he was uncertain whether his life or his
property was menaced, but he saw in the future that it would be sudden. The
difficulty arose from the fact that the effects of the planet Uranus were not yet
understood by astrologers, and his agitation increased as the time approached • • •
Sitting down, he said two or three times, "I feel quite well-there is nothing the
matter with me. I am not going to have a fit or anything of the sort." Then
rising from his seat he came towards my father, saying: "What is it to be? The
time is past. Could I have made some mistake in my calculations?" He took
some paper and a pencil to go through the figures again-just then there was a
cry of fire from the street. He rapidly made a note in his astrological book as
to the effects of Uranus. The house was burned down, all his property was
destroyed.
Alfred T. Story places this accident at Bayswater Hill, but it is more
likely to have been at 10! Titchfield Street where, according to Elmes's
Annals of the Fine Arts (1817) Varley built a gallery for the display of his
works. The date of the fire, as given by Roget, was June 25th, 1825, and
it originated at Stoddart's pianoforte factory nearby. Varley was
turbed by the calamity although he lost everything, and was not insured.
Indeed, he was rather pleased that he had proved the evil potentialities of
the new planet. To Fielding, who condoled with him on hearing the news,
and asked if the matter was serious, Varley replied: ttNo, only the house
burnt down ; I knew something would happen." Five years afterwards,
in May, 1830, a fire at a framemaker's shop involved lOt Titchfield Street
in another disaster, and Varley moved first to a house in Porchester Terrace,
where Linnell had resided, and thence to 3 Elkin's Row, Bayswater.
Whoever might be inclined to doubt John Varley's powers of forecasting
the future, his son Albert had several reasons to be convinced of their
certainty.
A purchaser had selected in his studio two important drawings. Next day,
having packed them carefully, he placed them in a portfoilo. The drawings were to

54
 be handed by Albert to the purchaser, w.ho apparently lived in the neighbourhood.
On arriving at the house, Albert, in the presence of the purchaser of the draw-
ings, opened the portfolio, and to his dismay found that the drawings had dis·
appeared. There was nothing mysterious about this. The portfolio was probably
fastened at the top, and not at the sides : anyone carrying it under the arm might
easily fail to notice the parcel slipping out behind. Albert was terrified, and not
at all anxious to return home, knowing that his want of care might have exceedingly
unpleasant consequences. Later in life, he said, he often looked back to that time
of anxiety and apprehension as a most uncomfortable experience. At last the
plunge had to be taken, and going to the studio he was asked if he had delivered
the drawings. He commenced sta-:::::ering something, when he was cut short.
"No, you did not deliver them. I was looking at my figure for the day, after
you left, and saw that I should lose them. I shall never see them again" -nor
did he. "It was not your fault," he said, "but mine" -and the incident closed
to Albert's intense relief.
Though Varley states in his book that, in spite of the influence of the
stars, free will remained, he does not appear to have been able to exercise
that free will himself, although he tried to do so.
He was on a visit at a well-known country mansion, and noting in his horoscope
that on a certain day he might receive an injury to his leg, he remained in his room
until the evening. As dusk came on, he decided that he would dress for dinner.
Hearing as he thought a servant outside, he was about to ask that some hot water
might be brought, and on opening the door he stumbled over a water can and
rather seriously injured his shin.
A strange accident which might have been fatal befell Albert Varley
himself. He was dining with a well-known physician. As he was leaving
the house, the doctor remarked : uyou have a bad cold ; I will give you
something which will relieve it."
On his way home he passed a chemist's shop. The man was just closing, but
said he would make up the prescription • • • As there was some little difficulty
about finding and writing a label, Albert Varley said: "I know what it is, a remedy
for a cold. Never mind the label!" On going to bed he poured the contents
of the bottle into a glass and drank it off. He remembered staggering to bed,
and only became conscious about noon the next day, and finding himself quite
helpless. He was at the time a bachelor living in rooms • • . he had not seen
his father for some little time. Great therefore was his astonishment when he
suddenly made his appearance with evident signs of having made a hurried journey.
On enquiring about his health he said, "I was looking over your horoscope and
found directions pointing to your death, or very great danger to-day and came at
once to see what had happened !" When he heard what had taken place, he at
once sent for food and administered stimulants, and got medical advice as soon as
possible.
The doctor on reading the prescription said : "You ought to have been dead
hours ago-you have taken about twenty doses in one." A naturally excellent
constitution and his strength and youth pulled him through, though he had a
severe illness ••. It was only through the arrival of my grandfather (John Varley)
at the critical moment that his life had been saved.
Here is another example of John Varley's clairvoyance. Going for an
excursion on the river with a party of friends, the artist remarked :
"We shall not separate before we have witnessed something terrible!" Shortly
after, when near a bridge where some repairs were going on, the weight of a pile-

55
 driving machine became detached, and falling on one of the men, he was killed
in the sight of them all, in a very terrible manner.
The foregoing revelations are specially authenticated as reaching us from
Albert Varley, via his son. But there are others.
In the Burlington Fine Arts Catalogue, 1871, we read the following
anecdote:
Calling one day on a well-known picture dealer, he (Varley) sought to dispose
of some of his drawings, which he had brought in a portfolio. The dealer declined,
but only to be again and again urged: at length Varley exclaimed, "I shall sell
before I leave the hoUM:," mentioning as the ground for his assertion some par-
ticular relation which existed between the planet under which he was born, and
another of the celestial luminaries. The dealer invited him to tea, still refusing
to purchase; but as Varley was on the point of leaving the house a friend of the
dealer's came in, and ,on being introduced to the artist, then and there bought his
pictures. "Ah," said Varley, "I told you that I should sell before I left your house."
So true were some of the artist's prophecies that they caused Varley to
be feared at times. There is a story told that when James Ward, the painter
of animals, discovered that the nativities of his own children were proving
to be right, he had Varley's horoscopes destroyed as a wicked forestalling
of God's will, and as such essentially evil in themselves.
Another friend on whom Varley used his skill was William Collins,
R.A. A sensation was caused when it was divulged that Varley had long
previously prophesied the very day when Collins would die. The engraver,
Scriven, admitted that certain facts, known only to himself, were ttdivined"
by Varley.
An astounding revelation concerned a girl of sixteen. Drawing up her
horoscope, he informed her that she would be married in the course of a
few years, and would have one child. Proceeding with her future, Varley
was surprised to read in the stars that there would be a second marriage
before the death of the first husband. ttHallo! What is this?" he exclaimed.
ttThere is something wrong here," but he did not tell the girl what it was.
Her life ran according to the horoscope. She married first a clergyman.
He deserted her, and she heard nothing from him for about twelve years.
A letter then arrived from Australia containing a draft of money with which
the wife was instructed to furnish a house. The clergyman had turned gold
prospector, had made a fortune and would be coming home shortly. He
did not return, and after a further lapse of time, and hearing that her husband
was dead, the ttwidow" married again. News, however, was received that
the first husband had not died, and was still living in Australia.
Another of these queer ttverities" is that told by William Vokins, the
dealer, who was frequently in touch with Varley, and who sheltered the
artist during his last days. Varley was present in Vokins' house when
Mrs. Vokins gave birth to a daughter. The artist-soothsayer immediately
drew up the child's horoscope, and handing it to Vokins said, ttBe careful
of the child when she is four years of age. At that time she will be in
danger of a severe accident from fire." Whether or not the parents could
have saved the child from this accident had they remembered Varley's

56
prediction who can tell, but they forgot the warning. It happened that the
little girl, at about the time indicated, was so severely scalded that she
nearly lost her life. As a result of this fatality she was blind and deaf for
several years, but eventually recovered her sight and partial hearing.
There is an amusing and true prophecy about John Sell Cotman. On
July lOth, 1822, Cotman wrote to Dawson Turner as follows :
"'I have had a violent relapse with every symptom carried to its highest pitch.
Clarence's dream was not more wretched than my ni_ght of delirium.' His severe
breakdown had lasted for several months when it nappened that John Varley
came to Yarmouth to stay with the Dawson Turners. He called upon Cotman
and was at first refused admittance to his sick room by the maid, who said that
her master had been given up by the doctors. However, Varley insisted, and on
entering the room he saw at a glance that his old friend was suffering from mental
depression and not from any bodily ill. He said to him, 'Why, Cotman, you
are not such a fool as to think that you are going to die ! Impossible ! No such
thing! I tell you there are yet twenty years for you yet to come.' Varley's
prophecy, based, as he claimed, on his astrological lore, came very near the truth,
for Cotman lived for nineteen years and nine months after the prediction was
made"*
Not everybody, of course, was convinced of Varley's astrological gift.
The Duke of Sussex, President of the Royal Society, was in the habit of
ridiculing the artist's predictions. ttCould the stars account," he asked, ''for
some corns on his toes ?" And the Reverend William Harness declared
that as far as he was concerned, Varley's predictions were entirely
Elizabeth Turner, afterwards Lady Palgrave, refers to the
astrologer's beliefs in the second part of her letter dated October 5th, 1822.
" ••• I have not, however, yet mentioned the strangest part of Mr. Varley's
character, and that which makes mere casual observers esteem him mad. With
all his nobility of mind he unites a more than childish simplicity, and he entirely
believes in astrology, palmistry, the raising of ghosts and seeing of visions •••
and this part of his character lies open at first sight, for he dashes at once into
astrology, and was not happy until he had cast all our nativities, yet he is quite
sane in mind even on this insane topic . . . Mr. Varley loves and excels in
conversation, which he illustrates by practical and beautiful similes. Though
very rapid he is always intelligible; and however harassed, always unruffled in
temper and unbroken in spirits • . . "
Gilchrist, in his Life of Blake, states that ''Varley was not learned or
deeply grounded or even very original in his astrology, which he had caught
up at second hand," but was Gilchrist competent to judge? The late
Stanley Redgrove, B.Sc., F.C.S., an expert in these matters, wrote in the
Occult Review: ''Whether astrology be a true science or not may, of course,
be disputed; but -beyond dispute Varley was a master of it."
Since the prediction about Paul Mulready is said to have been cast in
1803, Varley at that date being it indicates that he had begun
his astrological studies early in life. years afterwards we find
him calling on John Linnell with a timely horoscope. There is a letter from
Linnell to his Samuel Palmer, dated November 23rd, 1838.
*The Life of John Sell Cotman. By Sydney D. Kitson.

57
 I have seen Mr. Varley this morning, who brought me Hannah's horoscope,
all drawn out very curiously. He seems much interested in your welfare, and
brought the nativity to show me, as Hannah is in her twenty-first year and he
considers it is an important period. I have asked him at what period she was ill
during your present journey, but he would not tell. Perhaps someone will tell
him before he consults his books, and then he will know • • • If anything is the
matter it is Mars and Saturn's fault, he says. I say, if it should proceed from a
cold room and carbonnel, it will be your fault, Mr. P., so mind your P's and Q's,
or I shall tickle your toby and comb your head with a knobstick, as Mrs. Francis
used to say to her husband. To be serious; do not, my dear fellow, run any
risks now for the sake of saving.
Palmer and his young wife, who was Hannah Linnell, were then in Rome.
There is a vivid impression of John Varley about this time fascinating
the company at Gore House, Kensington, where Lady Blessington
tained a circle of celebrities. She had known Varley many years before as
a visitor to Lord Blessington's house in St. James's Square. He discoursed
on astrology and magic in the library at Gore House and everybody was
infected with his beliefs, Bulwer and Disraeli plunging ttinto discussion and
experiment." Varley led them in debates on witchcraft and spiritualism.
They tried crystal gazing ttwith the help of a famous crystal given to their
hostess by Nazim Pasha."*
Varley is also said to have helped Lord Lytton, Bulwer's younger
brother, in occult studies for his book Zanoni. Another celebrity who came
under his spell was Sir Richard Burton, but not seriously, if we can judge
by Burton's comments in Lady Burton's life of her husband.
Varley tried his astrological gifts on Ruskin, who writes:
" ••• chancing to call with Dr. Acland on John Varley, the conversation falling
on his favourite science of astrology, and we both laughing at it, he challenged
either of us to give him the place and hour of our nativity, saying that, if either
could, he could prove the truth of the science in ten minutes. I happened to be
able to give mine, and in certainly not more than ten minutes, occupied in drawing
the diagram of its sky, he fastened upon the three years of my past life when I
was fourteen, eighteen and twenty-one, as having been especially fatal to me.
"These were the years in which I first saw at Paris, secondly in London, staying
with us in our Herne Hill house, and, thirdly, lost by her marriage, the French
girl to whom certain Yery foolish love-poems were written, which my least wise
friends plague me now to reprint. But the three periods of crisis were only foci
in the general mistake, mismanagement and misfortune of all my education,
precisely between those years from the age of fourteen to twenty-one • • • The
girl being once fairly married, and which was of more importance-! beginning
to feel a little how foolish and wicked I had been, I took myself up in returning
from Italy over the Cenis in 1841, and finding breath and spirit suddenly stronger
in a scorching morning at Lans-le-bourg, I date from that hour and place the
beginning of my vital work and education." t
Writing to Mrs. Gisborne on March 7th, 1822, Mary Shelley appears
to have been interested in Varley's powers. ttBut to speak of predictions
and antedictions, some of Varley's are curious. till fortune in May or June,
*Blessington-D'Orsay : A Masquerade by Michael Sadleir.
tRuskin's Worl<s, ed. Cook and Wedderburn. Praeterita 1, Ch. iv, p. 81.

58
1815.' No, it was then that he (Shelley) arranged his income; there was
no ill except health al solito, at that time. The particular days of the 2nd
and 14th June, 1820, were not ill, but the whole period was disastrous."*
Varley persisted in his recondite beliefs till the end of his life. Albert
Varley has left a record of a visit to his father's ttin reply to
hopes for his early recovery, he pointed to his horoscope and the directions
which he had calculated. With such aspects "-.1:"'1--'roaching, he said: (There
could be little hope.' His death took place shortly after this conversation."
Let us look at Varley's curious book. Its full title is Treatise on Zodiacal
Physiognomy, illustrated with engravings of heads and features, accompanied
by tables of the time of the rising of the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, and
containing also new and astrological explanations of some remarkable portions
of ancient mythological history. The book, which consists of
octavo pages of letterpress and five plates, four of which were engraved by
Linnell, was one of a series to be completed in four parts, and was printed
for the author at 10! Great Titchfield Street, Oxford Street. It was
lished in 1828 and sold by Messrs. Longman & Co. at five shillings. The
other three parts did not materialise.
Opening his preface, Varley writes, ((The apparent power of the various
signs of the Zodiac in creating a great diversity in the features and complexions
of the human race has long been as well established among enquiring people
as the operation of the moon on the tides, and may properly be termed a
branch of natural philosophy which I propose to denominate Zodiacal
Physiognomy."
Though physiognomy and astrology are associated, Varley states that
the former is independent of ttjudicial prediction," and can be studied on
its own merits as a branch of natural philosophy. He divides mankind
into four temperaments ((answering to the four trigons, trinities or
licities," which confer these different triplicities. There is the fiery trigon-
Aries, Leo, Sagittarius, under whose auspices are born spirited, generous,
magnanimous and princely natures. The Earthy Trigon : Taurus, Virgo,
Capricorn, which contains the careful, sordid and penurious qualities.
The Aerial Trigon : Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, symbolising the humane,
harmonious and courteous principles. The Watery Trigon: Cancer,
Scorpio and Pisces, cold, prolific, cautious and severe qualities.
The influence of these signs is modified by the position of the planets
at the time of a person's birth. For instance, one born ttunder a watery
or earthy trigon may be of a more elevated and generous disposition if at
birth several of his planets were in the fiery or aerial signs, and especially
if these and his ascendant are in good aspect."
Varley works out his theory with no little ingenuity, a theory derived
and simplified from the innumerable books that the artist must have studied
-and he gives tables and charts whereby one can follow and possibly
prove his argument. An interesting statement is that ttSagittarius, the
*Ernest Dowden : Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

59
 house of Jupiter, being the only sign (as I have found by my own experience)
under which no persons are born having black or dark hair, eyes and eye,
brows, with the very rare exception of an occasional appearance of reflection
of the sign of Gemini, which gives a mild hazel brown eye and hair, and
sometimes a deficiency in the clearness of the complexion." Persons born
under Capricorn are generally very dark in the very first degree of that sign,
while the Sagittarians retain their light complexion Hto the very last degree,
minutes and second of the Archer."
It is obvious from a study of P;-:-- book that Varley gave a great deal of
thought, plus his observation as an artist, to this abstruse subject. Nor do
we need to be expert astrologer,physiognomists to agree with-him that Hby
far the less numerous portion of society is born in the fiery and aerial signs ;
the world being, in its disposition and habits, governed chiefly by the earthy,
melancholic, saturnine, and the watery phlegmatic signs, while superior
princes and nobles of the world, and the sublime and heroic poetical writers,
painters and composers, emanate from the fiery and regal trigon : while
under the humane and courteous aerial signs (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius)
are mostly produced the professors and instructors of music, the fine arts,
and the ceremonies and embellishments of life and civilization."
The book was probably too difficult, too serious and scientific to be
popular, for since the three parts announced to follow the first were never
published we can only assume that it was not a success. The public then,
as now, preferred to have their fortunes told rather than go to the trouble
'of learning how to work out their own nativities, which requires considerable
concentration and study.
Varley had devoted many years to the ttscience," and one gathers from
his book that he regarded prediction less as a supernatural cult than as a
question of logic and mathematics. In fact, he writes that astrology
"does not necessarily interfere with free will : for all astrology is nothing more
than the experience and observation of coincidences, in which the astrologian is
distinguished by a greater degree of knowledge and research, and a more methodical
arrangement of facts and correspondence, than is possessed by our aunts and
grandmothers, who are all sybils in their way, and predict from certain appearances
in the sky, fair or bad weather •••"
The prospectus of the unpublished parts is to be found in the Victoria
and Albert Museum Library, bound in a volume entitled Fine Art Pamphlets,
1801,1874. It was to be called A List of a Portion of the Classic Fables and
Sacred Histories of which an entirely new and Detailed explanation is
prepared for publication, from Discoveries founded on the Application of
Astrological Knowledge, and on the ancient Theban art of Geomancy, by
John Varley.
Here are some of the mysteries that Varley proposed to elucidate or to
explain by zodiacal influences. Why the sacrifice of Abel was more
acceptable to the Supreme Being than that of Cain.
The Zodiacal origin of Baptism, and its reference to a principle of
morality.

60
 Why fire was said to have been first invented or discovered in Delos.
The establishment of Christianity and the abolition of the worship of
heathen gods, shown to have accompanied the processional motion of
particular fixed stars ; and of the manner in which they be capable of
influencing or indicating the movements of mankind--
An explanation of the four modes acknowledged by the Apostle Paul,
by which God, at various times and in divers manners spake, ttor revealed"
by the prophets or seers.
The prospectus, in itself, proves Varley's intense preoccupation with
mysteries which have exercised the genius of poets, philosophers and
religionists since the beginning of history. Astrology was an important
facet of the artist's personality; and whatever Gilchrist's opinion of this
side of Varley's genius, Stanley Redgrove has written that the Treatise of
Zodiacal Physiognomy is a ttwork of great originality, being a tveritable
curiosity of literature'."